Happy Bunny Day to all! This was a great week of fishing on both sides of the Island! The weather for the most part has been perfect, a little wind over the weekend but no complaints after that brutal winter.
The water out front has been changing daily. As the week went on the Gulf Stream began to push its way back inside and fragments have finally found their way inshore which were long overdue. So things seem to be getting themselves back in order. The water temp’s are in the low 70’s with nice clean blue green water and about 50 feet of visibility. The currents were very light all week and until Sunday, the waters inside 50 feet have still been dirty but a warm 72 degrees. On Sunday the stronger current started as the clean water pushed inside about a knot and a half to the Northeast. The waters in the backcountry have also started to warm up and as usual remain dirty.
Now the fishing out back has started to show more signs of life for us up in the Upper Keys. Both Capt. Jeff and Capt. Clyde spent a few days chasing down an assortment of fish, which was great to see. They both had good Speckled Trout fishing on 6lb Spinners. The Mackerels are still snapping and we had a showing of some nice Groupers, all released safe and sound. The guys also found some small Bluefish averaging about 6lb’s along with all the Jacks and Ladyfish one can handle. They say that soon the Tarpon will be biting a bit better. The Snook, well, there’s another story. There are some small ones around but very few overall.
Out front things for both me and Capt. Clyde have been very productive. Clyde on the Pretty Work had several days with real nice King Macks averaging about 10lb’s with a few up to 25. Us on That’s Right found a few really fat Cobias up to 35lb’s all caught on Cigar Minnows which have made a showing this week on the bait patch, wow it’s been nice. Joe Murphy and his buddy, John had their sons out with Clyde on the Pretty Work and John Jr caught his first Sailfish!! Along with a great catch of Yellowtails which, by the way, have really started to chew! The trips this week on both boats had their limits in yellowtails mostly around 2 1/2 pounds. They were real nice fish on 10lb test. Andrew and I had one trip where we found ourselves amidst an awesome Spanish and Cero mackerel bite! Hooking up with every cast the kids had a blast on the light tackle. We were still catching some nice AJ’s on the Little Hump and a few deep-water wrecks, both on the Jig’s and live baits.
We have another full week ahead of us! I have a Dry Tortugas trip to get in and plenty of fun stuff coming up so hopefully the fishing will continue to improve. We should start to see the Dolphins soon and should still have some chances at the Cobias. The Yellow tail fishing should stay good for the next couple weeks and the bigger Mutton Snappers should hopefully start to show up in good numbers in the mid water patches real soon.
Captain John Oughton
1-800-763-3047
